SITE POLL: How do YOU use the blog system?

[Blue]

I find the blogs really quite dandy. They are a good way to pass time when waiting for a reply by reading another persons' or creating your own rambling entry and in a sense, I think it helps create a more personal aspect to the community. They're a blissfully simple way to get your vents and rants out, send a mass message to all who follow you, or even just brighten someones' day with an amusing written time-passing note. It would be a darn shame if they were removed.

I also know many use them to store information that would be hard to do elsewhere. I understand the recent addition of your 'character' collection but quite personally -everyone is entitled to their own opinion and this is just mine, I wish not to clash upon others- find them hard and time consuming to use. The blogs are greatly preferred, especially for little amusing snippets I enjoy keeping somewhere on my page. Such as my favourite roleplay quotes or scenes -I feel like this personal aspect is a big thing to the site! Without it... well, it just becomes another main media roleplay site doesn't it? This community is the first thing I noticed upon coming to the site, full of many great people that are easy to connect with through writing and removing one of those creative outlets... well I feel as though it would take a bite out of, so to speak, being able to connect with other writers on a personal level.

I'm not very good with expressing my thoughts into words right off the top of my head, but hopefully this is vaguely understandable. I feel like the removal of blogging would benefit the site less then it would damage it. Do hope you choose to keep them, because even though not everyone uses them the ones who do find this tool rather important c:

 

[Krimp]

I've never really looked at anyone else's blogs, but I like to use mine just to post photos that relate to characters I make. It's very similar to tumblr but I like being able to keep everything on the same site! I don't really think it would fit anywhere else, posting them in the Characters section wouldn't make much sense as it doesn't really explain much, I just like the pictures. Plus it's simple to go back and edit in more pictures whenever I like!

There's only one post so far, but I'm sure the longer I stay here the more I'll make. Change would be cool but I do like having the option there!

 

[Roman]

I've been using the blog system since I signed up, as a place where I can put all my concepts, character sheets, and roleplays so that they're easily accessible from multiple devices and I'm able to work on them from wherever I am as long as I have my phone and at least 3G. Not quite sure what I'd do without them - start a vault thread? It would work for my sheets, but not quite as well for the four or five entire roleplays I've currently got stored in there.

Honestly, the blog system is one of my favourite features about Iwaku, and helped my decision to switch over to here from where I used to RP.

Edit: Plus, with the ability to decide who can see a post and who can't, it's super useful for collaborative world-building, as well as proof-reading and feedback. A thread can't really do the same, as it's completely public.

 

[Hisoka Kobayashi]

I need my blogs.I'll curl up into a ball and cry if they're taken away.I put poems,role play plot ideas,character bios (I use my blog for that because the area for characters won't accept photobucket images so my blog is my last resort.),things I think are fun or sweet,information about made up locations for my role plays,my list of anime I'm watching with anime I plan to watch and my list of Iwaku family.I don't know how download blogs or what to even do with downloaded blogs.Please don't put me and other people who use and enjoy the blogs through that. :( I already went through it on another site and other site (MySpace) made so many changes that now I can't stand them.My point is that the blogs matter to those of us who use them or read them.Without them I would have to put everything in one of my groups which isn't what my group was made for.Having to put everything on another site is to much of a hassle and so is having to try to figure out how to open some saved file.Please leave the blogs alone. :'(

 

[Brovo]

Whilst I plan on releasing expansion side story content for my role plays and do have library structures planned for future guides, neither requires a blog area. Just a section of the forums where they'd make sense, such as the Writing & Art Museum.

Conversely, one could simply give Blogs their own subforum somewhere, seeing as how they're public blogs anyway.

 

[Razilin]

<reads how many people voted in the poll>

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...that's a LOT of people

 

[Lillian Gray]

I dislike that when I follow someone, I instantaneously follow their blog as well. Finding the option to un-watch them was somewhat difficult, and if anything it'd be nice that I don't automatically follow a person's blog.

 

[redblood]

I dislike that when I follow someone, I instantaneously follow their blog as well. Finding the option to un-watch them was somewhat difficult, and if anything it'd be nice that I don't automatically follow a person's blog.

You can go to alert preferences (Which can be found if you hover your cursor over your username in the highest right corner beside alert and inbox.) Then un-check the box -Receive an alert when someone publishes an entry in a blog I follow-

It's a bad idea though if you do follow certain blogs and wants alert from them. In that case it's just to erase the blogs from your watch list when you follow new people. (And I do agree. I don't like that I follow peoples blogs just because I follow them o.O It took me two years before I found out about the option of not getting alerts from the blog section -_-' Until then I just unwatched peoples blogs when they posted and I noticed I had new people on my watched list. Cause at that time I had no idea it was because I followed them that they were put there.... I'm slow >_<)

 

[Klutzy Ninja Kitty]

I'd rather you change to a new blog system then to get rid of it from the site completely. :( I find the blog very helpful for posting warnings for my followers about certain things going on with me, helpful for saving Rp posts I want to display or work on later, writing samples, and other things I want to share. If the blogs were gone, I'm not sure how I'd do some of these things. Sure, I could probably do them off iwaku with google doc links on my profile to certain writing things, but it's always so much easier if I can just have all the tools I need for iwaku right on iwaku.

 

[Sidhe]

I feel like 'sometimes' and 'rarely' shouldn't have been lumped together as one option. The difference there is significant enough to skew the results, imo.

I use it relatively frequently, and for both posting bits of writing I'm fond of and for actual journaling/letting people know where I am in my life if it impacts my role-playing availability. If not an actual blog system, I would definitely appreciate some kind of blog alternative, even if it's just a sub forum somewhere!

 

[Caramon Zero]

The blogs are a place where people go to share their feelings with others, as well as vent out their frustrrrations, it also allows them to keep a more organised group of ideas in one place where they don't have to look through pages and pages of other people's things in order to find their own.
It helps when people want to have these ideas separate from other things that they put in their folders, etc., and it allows them to quickly and easily let those who follow them know what's going on in their life so that they can either be happy with them, or cheer them up.
I use my blog for my songs, actual blogging when I feel a certain way, as well as doing what I can to try and make people happy, hoping that someone will enjoy what I do, and that it might just keep them from that six-foot jump into the black.
I say keep the blogs, because if someone can read mine and understand the feelings put into my songs, and feel better about themselves and be happy, then I know that I've done something right, which I rarely ever get to do.

 

[Diana]

Thank you everybody for your votes and comments! :D


Based on these numbers we are definitely going to want to keep some kind of blog system. O_O So we're going to be looking for some alternative solutions now.

 

[Brovo]

Thank you everybody for your votes and comments! :D


Based on these numbers we are definitely going to want to keep some kind of blog system. O_O So we're going to be looking for some alternative solutions now.

psst. A subforum specifically for blogs linked via url to profiles under role play resumé.

Just a thought.

 

[Klutzy Ninja Kitty]

psst. A subforum specifically for blogs linked via url to profiles under role play resumé.

Just a thought.

But if our blogs are a thread on the forum there's no way to make certain blog posts private...

 

[Brovo]

But if our blogs are a thread on the forum there's no way to make certain blog posts private...

True, but then if you want privacy with your blog, you could always write a journal instead. I mean, rule of thumb: If you don't want the public to know something, don't post it on the Internet.

Still, it is a valid point, so I guess it's up to @Diana to figure that one out. Figured though that if the blogs are meant to be read by others, then why not a subforum? I mean if you want to write private blogs, that's always what journals or the private company of close friends was for, I thought.

 

[Klutzy Ninja Kitty]

True, but then if you want privacy with your blog, you could always write a journal instead. I mean, rule of thumb: If you don't want the public to know something, don't post it on the Internet.

Still, it is a valid point, so I guess it's up to @Diana to figure that one out. Figured though that if the blogs are meant to be read by others, then why not a subforum? I mean if you want to write private blogs, that's always what journals or the private company of close friends was for, I thought.

Well, I have a good reason as to why I want certain posts (not all of them) to be private. I'm working on posts for a future roleplay and if it's available to the public then everyone will be able to see it before it's finished--which would spoil the roleplay plot to everyone. And I like using the blog because it lets me sort of preview how the post will look in the forum without having to post it there for the world to see when it's not ready. If I have to use a different journal website to keep those posts hidden, I can't be guaranteed that my post style will look the same on iwaku as it did on the other website I used. Because copy and pasted things don't always look the same from website to website.

So that's my own personal reasoning, at least. :)

 

[Thought Manifest]

So... Out of curiosity. Is this something that new users should avoid using until the Powers That Be have figured out how to redo the blogging systems to make them work better with site updates?

 

[Diana]

So... Out of curiosity. Is this something that new users should avoid using until the Powers That Be have figured out how to redo the blogging systems to make them work better with site updates?

No. Keep using as normal. :) Our priority would be finding something that can import everything in to a new system.